SPEECH 

OP 

DANIEL  WEBSTER, 


OX  THE  SUBJECT  OF 


rauTHB 

IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 
Jawuaky  20,  1830. 


WASHINGTON  .* 

FRIHTED  BY  OALS9  &  SEATOJT. 

1830. 


SPEECH. 


The  following  resolution,  moved  by  Mr.  Foot,  of  Con- 
necticut, being  under  consideration  : 

"Jletthxdy  That  the  Committee  on  Public  Lands  be  instructed  to  inquire  and  report  the  quan- 
tity of  the  public  lands  remaining  unsold  within  each  State  and  Territory,  and  whether  it  be 
expedient  to  limit,  for  a  certain  period,  the  sales  of  the  Public  Lands  to  such  Lands  only  as  hare 
heretofore  been  offered  for  sale,  and  are  now  subject  to  entry  at  the  minimum  price.  And, 
also,  whether  the  office  of  Surveyor  General,  and  some  of  the  Land  Offices,  may  not  be  abolish- 
ed without  detriment  to  the  public  interest ;  or  whether  it  be  expedient  to  adopt  measures 
to  hasten  the  sales,  and  extend  more  rapidly  the  surreys  of  the  Public  Lands." 

Mr.  Webster,  of  Massachusetts,  said,  on  rising,  that 
nothing  had  been  further  from  his  intention,  than  to  take  any 
part  in  the  discussion  of  this  resolution.  It  proposed  only 
an  inquiry  on  a  subject  of  much  importance,  and  one  in  re- 
gard to  which  it  might  strike  the  mind  of  the  mover,  and  of 
other  gentlemen,  that  inquiry  and  investigation  would  be  use- 
ful. Although,  said  Mr.  W.,  I  am  one  of  those  who  do  not 
perceive  any  particular  utility  in  instituting  the  inquiry,  I 
Lave,  nevertheless,  not  seen  that  harm  would  be  likely  to  re- 
sult from  adopting  the  resolution.  Indeed,  it  gives  no  new 
powers,  and  hardly  imposes  any  new  duty  on  the  committee. 
All  t!  at  the  resolution  proposes  should  be  done,  the  committee 
is  quite  competent,  without  the  resolution,  to  do  by  virtue  of 
its  ordinary  powers.  But,  sir,  although  1  have  felt  quite  in- 
different about  the  passing  of  the  resolution,  yet  opinions  were 
expressed,  yesterday,  on  the  general  subject  of  the  public 
lands,  and  on  some  other  subjects,  by  the  gentleman  from 
Soutli  Carolina,  so  widely  different  from  my  own,  that  I  am 
not  willing  to  let  the  occasion  pass  without  some  reply.  If  I 
deemed  the  resolution,  as  originally  proposed,  hardly  neces- 
sary, still  less  do  I  think  it  either  necessary  or  expedient  to 
adopt  it,  since  a  second  branch  has  been  added  to  it  to-day. 
By  this  second  branch,  the  committee  is  to  be  instructed  to 


4 


inquire  whether  it  he  expedient  to  adopt  measures  to  hasten 
the  sales,  and  extend  more  rapidly  the  surveys  of  the  public 
lands. 

Now,  it  appears,  that,  in  forty  years,  Mr.  President,  we 
have  sold  no  more  than  about  twenty  millions  of  acres  of  pub- 
lic lands.    The  annual  sales  do  not  now  exceed,  and  never 
have  exceeded,  one  million  of  acres.    A  million  a  year  is,  ac- 
cording to  our  experience,  as  much  as  the  increase  of  popula- 
tion can  bring  into  settlement.    And,  it  appears,  also,  that  we 
have,  at  this  moment,  sir,  surveyed  and  in  the  market,  ready 
for  sale,  two  hundred  and  ten  millions  of  acres,  or  thereabouts- 
All  this  vast  mass,  at  this  moment,  lies  on  our  hands,  for 
mere  want  of  purchasers.    Can  any  man,  looking  to  the  real 
interests  of  the  country  and  the  People,  seriously  think  of  in- 
quiring whether  we  ought  not  still  faster  to  hasten  the  public 
surveys,  and  to  bring,  still  more  and  more  rapidly,  other  vast 
quantities  into  the  market  ?    The  truth  is,  that  rapidly  as 
population  has  increased,  the  surveys  have,  nevertheless,  out- 
run our  wants.  There  are  more  lands  than  purchasers.  They 
are  now  sold  at  low  prices,  and  taken  up  as  fast  as  the  in- 
crease of  people  furnishes  hands  to  take  them  up.    It  is  ob- 
vious, that  no  artificial  regulation,  no  forcing  of  sales,  no 
giving  away  of  the  lands  even,  can  produce  any  great  and 
sudden  augmentation  of  population.    The  ratio  of  increase, 
though  great,  has  yet  its  bounds.    Hands  for  labor  are  mul- 
tiplied only  at  a  certain  rate.    The  lands  cannot  be  settled 
but  by  settlers  ;  nor  faster  than  settlers  can  be  found.  A  sys- 
tem, if  now  adopted,  of  forcing  sales,  at  whatever  prices,  may 
have  the  effect  of  throwing  large  quantities  into  the  hands  of 
individuals,  who,  would,  in  this  way,  in  time,  become  them- 
selves competitors  with  the  Government,  in  the  sale  of  land. 
My  own  opinion  has  uniformly  been,  that  the  public  lands 
should  be  offered  freely,  and  at  low  prices ;  so  as  to  encourage 
settlement  and  cultivation  as  rapidly  as  the  increasing  popu- 
lation of  the  country  is  competent  to  extend  settlement  and 
cultivation. 


5 


Every  actual  settler  should  be  able  to  buy  good  land,  at  a 
cheap  rate;  but,  on  the  other  band,  speculation  by  individuals, 
on  a  large  scale,  should  not  be  encouraged,  nor  should  the 
value  of  all  lands,  sold  and  unsold,  be  reduced  to  nothing,  by 
throwing  new  and  vast  quantities  into  the  market,  at  prices 
merely  nominal. 

L  now  proceed,  sir,  to  some  of  the  opinions  expressed  by 
the  gentleman  from  South  Carolina.  Two  or  three  topics 
were  touched  by  him,  in  regard  to  which  he  expressed  sen- 
timents in  which  I  do  not  at  all  concur. 

In  the  first  place,  sir,  the  honorable  gentleman  spoke  of 
the  whole  course  and  policy  of  the  Government  towards  those 
who  have  purchased  and  settled  the  public  lands,  and  seemed 
to  think  this  policy  wrong.  He  held  it  to  have  been,  from 
the  first,  hard  and  rigorous  :  he  was  of  opinion,  that  the  L'  U- 
ed  States  had  acted  towards  those  who  had  subdued  the  west- 
ern wilderness,  in  the  spirit  of  a  step-mother  :  that  the  public 
domain  had  been  improperly  regarded  as  a  source  of  revenue  : 
and  that  we  had  rigidly  compelled  payment  for  that  which 
ought  to  have  been  given  away.  He  said  we  ought  to  have 
followed  the  analogy  of  other  Governments,  which  had  acted 
on  a  much  more  liberal  system  than  ours,  in  planting  colonies. 
He  dwelt,  particularly,  upon  the  settlement  of  America  by 
colonists  from  Europe  ;  and  reminded  us,  that  their  Govern- 
ments had  not  exacted  from  those  colonists  payment  for  the 
soil  :  with  them,  he  said,  it  had  been  thought,  that  the  con- 
quest of  the  w  ilderness  was,  itself,  an  equivalent  for  the  soil, 
and  he  lamented  that  we  had  not  followed  that  example,  and 
pursued  the  same  liberal  course  towards  our  own  emigrants 
to  the  West. 

Now,  sir,  I  deny,  altogether,  that  there  has  been  any  thing 
harsh  or  severe  in  the  policy  of  the  Government  towards  the 
new  States  of  the  West.  On  the  contrary,  I  maintain,  that 
it  lias  uniformly  pursued,  towards  those  States,  a  liberal  and 


6 


enlightened  system,  such  a3  its  own  duty  allowed  and  re- 
quired, and  such  as  their  interests  and  welfare  demanded. 
The  Government  has  been  no  step-mother  to  the  new  States. 
She  has  not  been  careless  of  their  interests,  nor  deaf  to  their 
requests  ;  but  from  the  first  moment,  when  the  Territories 
which  now  form  those  States  were  ceded  to  the  Union,  down 
to  the  time  in  which  I  am  now  speaking,  it  has  been  the  in- 
variable object  of  the  Government  to  dispose  of  the  soil  ac- 
cording to  the  true  spirit  of  the  obligation  under  which  it 
received  it  ;  to  hasten  its  settlement  and  cultivation,  as  far  and 
as  fast  as  practicable ;  and  to  rear  the  new  communities  into 
equal  and  independent  States,  at  the  earliest  moment  of  their 
being  able,  by  their  numbers,  to  form  a  regular  Government. 

I  do  not  admit,  sir,  that  the  analogy  to  which  the  gentleman 
refers  us,  is  just,  or  that  the  cases  are  at  all  similar.  There 
is  no  resemblance  between  the  cases  upon  which  a  statesman 
can  found  an  argument.  The  original  North  American  Colo- 
nists either  fled  from  Europe,  like  our  New  England  ancestors, 
to  avoid  persecution,  or  came  hither  at  their  own  charges,  and 
often  at  the  ruin  of  their  fortunes,  as  private  adventurers.  Ge- 
nerally speaking,  they  derived  neither  succour  nor  protection 
from  their  Governments  at  home.  Wide,  indeed,  is  the  differ- 
ence between  those  cases  and  ours.  From  the  very  origin  of 
the  Government,  these  western  lands,  and  the  just  protection  of 
those  who  had  settled,  or  should  settle  on  them,  have  been 
leading  objects  in  our  policy,  and  have  caused  expenditures, 
both  of  blood  and  treasure,  not  inconsiderable  ;  not,  indeed, 
exceeding  the  importance  of  the  object,  and  not  yielded  grudg- 
ingly or  reluctantly,  certainly  ;  but  yet  not  inconsiderable, 
though  necessary  sacrifices,  made  for  high  proper  ends.  The 
Indian  title  has  been  extinguished  at  the  expense  of  many  mil- 
lions. Is  that  nothing  ?  There  is  still  a  much  more  material 
consideration.  These  colonists,  if  we  are  to  call  them  so,  in 
passing  the  Allegany,  did  not  pass  beyond  the  care  and  pro- 
tection of  their  own  Government.  Wherever  they  went,  the 
public  arm  was  still  stretched  over  them.    A  parental  Go- 


7 


vcrnment  at  home  was  ever  mindful  of  their  condition,  arid 
their  wants;  and  nothing  was  spared,  whicli  a  just  sense  of 
their  necessities  required.  Is  it  forgotten,  that  it  was  one  of 
the  most  arduous  duties  of  the  Government,  in  its  earliest  years, 
to  defend  the  frontiers  against  the  north-western  Indians  ?  Are 
the  sufferings  and  misfortunes  under  Harmar  and  St.  Clair 
not  worthy  to  he  remembered  ?  Do  the  occurrences  connected 
with  these  military  efforts  show  an  unfeeling  neglect  of  west- 
ern interests  ?  And  here,  sir,  what  becomes  of  the  gentleman's 
analogy  ?  What  English  armies  accompanied  our  ancestors  to 
clear  the  forest  of  a  barbarous  foe  ?  What  treasures  of  the  Ex- 
chequer were  expended  in  buying  up  the  original  title  to  the 
soil  ?  What  governmental  arm  held  its  JEgis  over  our  fathers' 
heads,  as  they  pioneered  their  way  in  the  wilderness  ?  Sir,  it 
was  not  till  General  Wayne's  victory,  in  1794,  that  it  could 
be  said,  we  had  conquered  the  Savages.  It  was  not  till  that 
period,  that  the  Government  could  have  considered  itself  as 
having  established  an  entire  ability  to  protect  those  who  should 
undertake  the  conquest  of  the  wilderness. 

And  here,  sir,  at  the  epoch  of  1794,  let  us  pause,  and 
survey  the  scene.  It  is  now  thirty-five  years  since  that 
scene  actually  existed.  Let  us,  sir,  look  back  and  behold 
it.  Over  all  that  is  now  Ohio,  there  then  stretched  one 
vast  wilderness,  unbroken,  except  by  two  small  spots  of 
civilized  culture,  the  one  at  Marietta,  and  the  other  at 
Cincinnati.  At  these  little  openings,  hardly  each  a  pin's 
point  upon  the  map,  the  arm  of  the  frontiersman  had  level- 
led the  forest,  and  let  in  the  sun.  These  little;  patches  of 
earth,  and  themselves  almost  shadowed  by  the  over-hanging 
boughs  of  that  wilderness,  which  had  stood  and  perpetu- 
ated itself,  from  century  to  century,  ever  since  the  creation, 
were  all  that  had  then  been  rendered  verdant  by  the  hand  oi 
man.  In  an  extent  of  hundreds,  and  thousands  of  square 
miles,  no  other  surface  of  smiling  green  attested  the  presence 
of  Civilization.  The  hunter's  path  crossed  mighty  rivers, 
flowing  in  solitary  grandeur,  whose  sources  lay  in  remote  and 


8 


unknown  regions  of  the  wilderness.  It  struck,  upon  the  North, 
on  a  vast  inland  sea,  over  which  the  wintry  tempests  raged 
as  on  the  ocean.  All  around  was  bare  creation.  It  was  fresh, 
untouched,  unbounded,  magnificent  wilderness.    And,  sir, 
what  is  it  now  ?  Is  it  imagination  only,  or  can  it  possibly  be 
fact,  that  presents  such  a  change,  as  surprises  and  astonishes 
us,  when  we  turn  our  eyes  to  what  Ohio  now  is  ?  Is  it  reality 
or  a  dream,  that,  in  so  short  a  period  even  as  thirty-five  years, 
there  has  sprung  up,  on  the  same  surface,  an  independent 
State,  with  a  million  of  people  ?  A  million  of  inhabitants  !  An 
amount  of  population  greater  than  that  of  all  the  Cantons  of 
Switzerland  ;  equal  to  one-third  of  all  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  when  they  undertook  to  accomplish  their  Independence. 
This  new  member  of  the  Republic  has  already  left  far  behind 
her,  a  majority  of  the  old  States.    She  is  now  by  the  side  of 
Virginia  and  Pennsylvania;  and,  in  point  of  numbers,  will 
shortly  admit  no  equal  but  New  York  herself.    If,  sir,  we 
may  judge  of  measures  by  their  results,  what  lessons  do  these 
facts  read  us,  upon  the  policy  of  the  Government  ?  What  in- 
ferences do  they  authorize,  upon  the  general  question  of  kind- 
ness, or  unkindness  ?  What  convictions  do  they  enforce,  as  to 
the  wisdom  and  ability,  on  the  one  hand,  or  the  folly  and  in- 
capacity, on  the  other,  of  our  general  administration  of  west- 
ern affairs  ?  Sir,  does  it  not  require  some  portion  of  self-re- 
spect in  us,  to  imagine,  that  if  our  light  had  shone  on  the 
path  of  Government,  if  our  wisdom  could  have  been  consulted 
in  its  measures,  a  more  rapid  advance  to  strength  and  pros- 
perity would  have  been  experienced  ?  For  my  own  part,  while 
I  am  struck  with  wonder  at  the  success,  I  also  look  with  ad- 
miration at  the  wisdom  and  foresight  which  originally  arrang- 
ed and  prescribed  the  system  for  the  settlement  of  the  public 
domain.    Its  operation  has  been,  without  a  moment's  inter- 
ruption, to  push  the  settlement  of  the  western  country  to  the 
full  extent  of  our  utmost  means. 


But,  sir,  to  return  to  the  remarks  of  the  honorable  member 
from  South  Carolina.    He  says  that  Congress  has  sold  these 


9 


lands,  and  put  the  money  into  the  Treasury,  while  other  Go- 
xernments,  acting  in  a  more  liberal  spirit,  gave  away  their 
lands  ;  and  that  we  ought,  also,  to  have  given  ours  away.  I 
shall  not  stop  to  state  an  account  between  our  revenues  deriv- 
ed from  land,  and  our  expenditures  in  Indian  treaties  and  In- 
dian wars.  But,  I  must  refer  the  honorable  gentleman  to  the 
origin  of  our  own  title  to  the  soil  of  these  Territories,  and 
remind  him  that  we  received  them  on  conditions,  and  under 
trusts,  which  would  have  been  violated  by  giving  the  soil 
away.  For  compliance  with  those  conditions,  and  the  just 
execution  of  those  trusts,  the  public  faith  was  solemnly  pledg- 
ed. The  public  lands  of  the  United  States  have  been  derived 
from  four  principal  sources.  First :  Cessions  made  to  the 
United  States  by  individual  States,  on  the  recommendation  or 
request  of  the  Old  Congress.  Second  :  The  compact  with 
Georgia,  in  1802.  Third  :  The  purchase  of  Louisiana,  in 
1803.  Fourth  :  The  purchase  of  Florida,  in  1819.  Of  the 
first  class,  the  most  important  was  the  cession  by  Virginia,  of 
all  her  right 'and  title,  as  well  of  soil  as  of  jurisdiction,  to  all 
the  territory  within  the  limits  of  her  charter,  lying  to  the 
northwest  of  the  river  Ohio.  It  may  not  be  ill-timed  to  recur 
to  the  causes  and  occasions  of  this  and  the  other  similar  grants. 

When  the  war  of  the  Revolution  broke  out,  a  great  differ- 
ence existed,  in  different  States,  in  the  proportion  between 
people  and  territory.  The  Northern  and  Eastern  States,  with 
very  small  surfaces,  contained  comparatively  a  thick  popula- 
tion, ami  there  was  generally  within  their  limits  no  great 
quantity  of  waste  lands  belonging  to  the  Government,  or  the 
Crown  of  England.  On  the  contrary,  there  were  in  the 
Southern  States— in  Virginia  and  in  Georgia  for  example — 
extensive  public  domains,  wholly  unsettled,  and  belonging  to 
the  Crown.  As  these  possessions  would  necessarily  fall  from 
the  Crown,  in  the  event  of  a  prosj>erous  issue  of  the  war.  it 
was  insisted  that  they  ought  to  devolve  on  the  United  States, 
for  the  good  of  the  whole.     The  war,  it  was  argued,  xvas 

\ 


10 


undertaken  and  carried  oh  at  the  common  expense  of  all  the 
colonies ;  its  benefits,  if  successful,  ought  also  to  be  common  ; 
and  the  property  of  the  common  enemy,  when  vanquished, 
ought  to  be  regarded  as  the  general  acquisition  of  all.  While 
yet  the  war  was  raging,  it  was  contended  that  Congress  ought 
to  have  the  power  to  dispose  of  vacant  and  unpatented  lands, 
commonly  called  Crown  lands,  for  defraying  the  expenses  of 
the  war,  and  for  other  public  and  general  purposes.  "  Reason 
and  justice,"  said  the  General  Assembly  of  New  Jersey,  in 
1778,  "must  decide,  that  the  property  which  existed  in  the 
Crown  of  Great  Britain,  previous  to  the  present  Revolution, 
ought  now  to  belong  to  the  Congress,  in  trust  for  the  use  and 
benefit  of  the  United  States.  They  have  fought  and  bled  for 
it,  in  proportion  to  their  respective  abilities,  and,  therefore,  the 
reward  ought  not  to  be  predilectionally  distributed.  Shall 
such  States  as  are  shut  out,  by  situation,  from  availing  them- 
selves of  the  least  advantage  from  this  quarter,  be  left  to  sink 
under  an  enormous  debt,  whilst  others  are  enabled,  in  a  short 
period,  to  replace  all  their  expenditures  from  the  hard  earnings 
of  the  whole  confederacy  ?" 

Moved  by  these  considerations,  and  these  addresses  made  to 
it,  Congress  took  up  the  subject,  and  in  September,  1780,  re- 
commended to  the  several  States  in  the  Union,  having  claims 
to  Western  Territory,  to  make  liberal  cessions  of  a  portion 
thereof  to  the  United  States;  and  on  the  10th  of  October, 
1780,  Congress  resolved,  that  any  lands  so  ceded,  in  pursuance 
of  their  preceding  recommendation,  should  be  disposed  of  for 
the  common  benefit  of  the  United  States  ;  should  be  settled  and 
formed  into  distinct  Republican  States,  to  become  members  of 
the  Federal  Union,  with  the  same  right  of  sovereignty,  freedom, 
and  independence  as  the  other  States :  and  that  the  lands  should 
be  granted,  or  settled,  at  such  times,  and  under  such  regulations, 
as  should  be  agreed  on  by  Congress.  Again,  in  September, 
1783,  Congress  passed  another  resolution,  expressing  the  con- 
ditions on  which  cessions  from  States  should  be  received: 


11 


and  in  October  following,  Virginia  made  her  cession,  reciting 
the  resolution,  or  act,  of  September  preceding,  and  then 
transferring  her  title  to  her  Northwestern  Territory  to  the 
United  States,  upon  the  express  condition,  that  the  [lands,  so 
ceded,  should  be  considered  as  a  common  fund  for  the  use  and 
benefit  of  such  of  the  United  States  as  had  become,  or  should 
become,  members  of  the  Confederation,  Virginia  inclusive,  and 
should  be  faithfully  and  bona  fide  disposed  of  for  that  purpose, 
and  for  no  other  use  or  purpose  whatsoever.  The  grants  from 
other  States  were  on  similar  conditions.  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut  both  had  claims  to  western  lands,  and  both 
relinquished  them  to  the  United  States  in  the  same  manner. 
These  grants  were  all  made  on  three  substantial  conditions  or 
trusts.  First,  that  the  ceded  Territories  should  be  formed 
into  States,  and  admitted,  in  due  time,  into  the  Union,  with  all 
the  rights  belonging  to  other  States.  Second,  that  the  lands 
should  form  a  common  fund,  to  be  disposed  of  for  the  general 
benefit  of  all  the  States.  Third,  that  they  should  be  sold  and 
settled,  at  such  time,  and  in  such  manner,  as  Congress  should 
direct. 

Now,  sir,  it  is  plain  that  Congress  never  has  been,  and  is 
not  now,  at  liberty  to  disregard  these  solemn  conditions.  For 
the  fulfilment  of  all  these  trusts,  the  public  faith  was,  and  is, 
fully  pledged.  How,  then,  would  it  have  been  possible  for 
Congress,  if  it  had  been  so  disposed,  to  give  away  these 
public  lands  ?  How  could  they  have  followed  the  example 
of  other  Governments,  if  there  had  been  such,  and  considered 
the  conquest  of  the  wilderness  an  equivalent  compensation  for 
the  soil  ?  The  States  had  looked  to  this  Territory,  perhaps 
too  sanguinely,  as  a  fund  out  of  which  means  were  to  come  to 
defray  the  expenses  of  the  war.  It  had  been  received  as  a 
fund,  as  a  fund  Congress  had  bound  itself  to  apply  it.  To 
have  given  it  away,  would  have  defeated  all  the  objects  which 
Congress,  and  particular  States,  had  had  in  view,  in  asking 
and  obtaining  the  c  ession,  and  would  plainly  have  violated  the 
Conditions  which  the  ceding  States  attached  to  theirown  grants. 


12 


The  gentleman  admits  that  the  lands  cannot  be  given  away 
until  the  national  debt  is  paid  :  because  to  a  part  of  that  debt 
they  stand  pledged.  But  this  is  not  the  original  pledge.  There 
is,  so  to  speak}  an  earlier  mortgage.  Before  the  debt  was 
funded,  at  the  moment  of  the  cession  of  the  lands,  and  by  the 
very  terms  of  that  cession,  every  State  in  the  Union  obtained 
an  interest  in  them,  as  in  a  common  fund.  Congress  has 
uniformly  adhered  to  this  condition.  It  has  proceeded  to  sell 
the  lands,  and  realize  as  much  from  them,  as  was  compatible 
with  the  other  trusts  created  by  the  same  deeds  of  cession. 
One  of  these  conditions,  or  trusts,  as  I  have  already  said,  was, 
that  the  lands  should  be  sold  and  settled,  at  such  time  and  man- 
ner.as  Congress  shall  direct.  The  Government  has  always  felt 
itself  bound,  in  regard  to  sale  and  settlement,  to  exercise  its 
own  best  judgment,  and  not  to  transfer  that  discretion  to  others, 
it  has  not  felt  itself  at  liberty  to  dispose  of  the  soil,  there- 
fore, in  large  masses,  to  individuals,  thus  leaving  to  them  the 
time  and  manner  of  settlement  It  had  stipulated  to  use  its 
own  judgment  If,  for  instance,  in  order  to  rid  itself  of  the 
trouble  of  forming  a  system  for  the  sale  of  those  lands,  and 
going  into  detail,  it  had  sold  the  whole  of  what  is  now  Ohio, 
in  one  mass,  to  individuals,  or  companies,  it  would  clearly 
have  departed  from  its  just  obligations.  And  who  can  now 
tell  or  conjecture,  how  great  would  have  been  the  evil  of  such 
a  course  ?  Who  can  say,  what  mischiefs  would  have  ensued, 
if  Congress  had  thrown  these  territories  into  the  hands  of  pri- 
vate speculation  ?  Or  who,  on  the  other  hand,  can  now  fore- 
see, what  the  event  would  be,  should  the  Government  depart 
from  the  same  wise  course  hereafter ;  and  not  content  with 
such  constant  absorption  of  the  public  lands  as  the  natural 
growth  of  our  population  may  accomplish,  should  force  great 
portions  of  them,  at  nominal  or  very  low  prices,  into  private 
hands,  to  be  sold  and  settled,  as  and  when  such  holders  might 
think  would  be  most  for  their  own  interest  ?  Hitherto,  sir,  1 
maintain.  Congress  has  acted  wisely,  and  done  its  duty  on  this 
subject.  I  hope  it  will  continue  to  do  it.  Departing  from 
the  original  idea,  so  soon  as  it  was  found  practicable  and  con- 


13 


venient,  of  selling  by  townships,  Congress  has  disposed  of  the 
soil  in  smaller  and  still  smaller  portions,  till,  at  length,  it  sells 
in  parcels  of  no  more  than  eighty  acres ;  thus  putting  it  into 
the  power  of  every  man  in  the  country,  however  poor,  but 
who  has  health  and  strength,  to  become  a  freeholder  if  he  de- 
sires, not  of  barren  acres,  hut  of  rich  and  fertile  soil.  The 
Government  has  performed  all  the  conditions  of  the  grant. — 
While  it  has  regarded  the  public  lands  as  a  common  fund,  and 
has  sought  to  make  what  reasonably  could  be  made  of  tiiem, 
as  a  source  of  revenue,  it  has  also  applied  its  best  wisdom  to 
sell  and  settle  them,  as  fast  and  as  happily  as  possible ;  and 
whensoever  numbers  would  warrant  it,  each  Territory  has 
been  successively  admitted  into  the  Union,  with  all  the  rights 
of  an  independent  State. 

Is  there,  then,  sir,  I  ask,  any  well  founded  charge  of  hard 
dealing  :  any  just  accusation  for  negligence,  indifference,  or 
parsimony,  which  is  capable  of  being  sustained,  against  the 
Government  of  the  country,  in  its  conduct  towards  the  new 
States  ?    Sir,  I  think  there  is  not 

But  there  was  another  observation  from  the  hon.  Member, 
which,  I  confess,  did  not  a  little  surprise  me.  As  a  reason  for 
wishing  to  get  rid  of  the  public  lands  as  soon  as  we  could,  and 
as  we  might,  the  hon.  gentleman  said  he  wanted  no  permanent 
sources  of  income,  lie  wished  to  see  the  time  when  the  Go- 
vernment should  not  possess  a  shilling  of  permanent  revenue. 
If  he  could  speak  a  magical  word,  and  by  that  word  convert 
the  whole  Capitol  into  gold,  the  word  should  not  be  spoken. 
The  administration  of  a  fixed  revenue,  he  said,  only  consoli- 
dates the  Government,  and  corrupts  the  People  !  Sir,  I  con- 
fess I  heard  these  sentiments  uttered  on  this  floor  not  without 
deep  regret  and  pain. 

1  am  aware  that  these  and  similar  opinions  arc  espoused  bj 
certain  persons  out  of  the  Capitol,  and  out  of  this  Government 
— but  1  did  not  expect  so  soon  to  find  them  here.  Consolida- 


tion! — that  perpetual  cry,  both  of  terror  and  delusion— con- 
solidation !  Sir,  when  gentlemen  speak  of  the  effects  of  a  com- 
mon fund,  belonging  to  all  the  States,  as  having  a  tendency  to 
consolidation,  what  do  they  mean  ?  Do  they  mean,  or  can  they 
mean,  any  thing  more  than  that  the  Union  of  the  States  will 
be  strengthened,  by  whatever  continues,  or  furnishes  induce- 
ments to  the  People  of  the  States  to  hold  together  ?  If  they 
mean  merely  this,  then,  no  doubt,  the  public  lands,  as  well  as 
every  thing  else  in  which  we  have  a  common  interest,  tends  to 
consolidation  ;  and  to  this  species  of  consolidation  every  true 
American  ought  to  be  attached  ;  it  is  neither  more  nor  less 
than  strengthening  the  Union  itself.  This  is  the  sense  in  which 
the  framers  of  the  Constitution  use  the  word  <  Consolidation 
and  in  which  sense  I  adopt  and  cherish  it.  They  tell  us,  in  the 
letter  submitting  the  Constitution  to  the  consideration  of  the 
country,  that — "In  all  our  deliberations  on  this  subject,  we  kept 
"  steadily  in  our  view  that  which  appears  to  us  the  greatest  in- 
i(  terest  of  every  true  American,  the  consolidation  of  our  Union* 
"  in  which  is  involved  our  prosperity,  felicity,  safety,  perhaps 
"  our  national  existence.  This  important  consideration,  seri- 
"  ovlsIij  and  deeply  impressed  an  our  minds,  led  each  State  in  the 
"  Convention  to  be  less  rigid,  on  points  of  inferior  magnitude, 
*<  than  might  have  been  otherwise  expected." 

This,  sir,  is  General  Washington's  consolidation.  This  is 
the  true  constitutional  consolidation.  I  wish  to  see  no  new 
powers  drawn  to  the  General  Government ;  but  I  confess  I  re- 
joice in  whatever  tends  to  strengthen  the  bond  that  unites  us, 
and  encourages  the  hope  that  our  Union  may  be  perpetual. 
And,  therefore,  I  cannot  but  feel  regret  at  the  expression  of 
such  opinions  as  the  gentleman  has  avowed  ;  because  I  think 
their  obvious  tendency  is  to  weaken  the  bond  of  our  connexion. 
I  know  that  there  are  some  persons  in  the  part  of  the  country 
from  which  the  hon.  member  comes,  who  habitually  speak  of 
the  Union  in  terms  of  indifference,  or  even  of  disparagement. 
The  lion,  member  himself  is  not,  I  trust,  and  can  never  he, 


15 


one  of  these.  They  significantly  declare  that  it  is  time  to  cal- 
culate the  value  of  the  Union  ;  and  their  aim  seems  to  he  to 
enumerate,  and  to  magnify,  all  the  evils,  real  and  imaginary, 
which  the  Government,  under  the  Union,  produces. 

The  tendency  of  all  these  ideas  and  sentiments  is  obviously 
to  bring  the  Union  into  discussion,  as  a  mere  question  of  pre- 
sent and  temporary  expediency — nothing  more  than  a  mere 
matter  of  profit  and  loss.  The  Union,  to  be  preserved,  while 
it  suits  local  and  temporary  purposes  to  preserve  it ;  and  to  be 
sundered  whenever  it  shall  be  found  to  thwart  such  purposes. 
Union,  of  itself,  is  considered  by  the  disciples  of  this  school  as 
hardly  a  good.  It  is  only  regarded  as  a  possible  means  of 
good  ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  as  a  possible  means  of  evil.  They 
cherish  no  deep  and  fixed  regard  (or  it,  flow  ing  from  a  thorough 
conviction  of  its  absolute  and  vital  necessity  to  our  welfare: 
Sir,  I  deprecate  and  deplore  this  tone  of  thinking  and  acting. 
I  deem  far  otherwise  of  the  Union  of  the  States  ;  and  so  did 
the  framcrs  of  the  Constitution  themselves.  What  they  said  I 
believe,  fully  and  sincerely  believe,  that  the  Union  of  the  States 
is  essential  to  the  prosperity  and  safety  of  the  States.  I  am  a 
Unionist,  and,  in  this  sense,  a  National  Republican.  I  would 
strengthen  the  ties  that  hold  us  together.  Far,  indeed,  in  my 
wishes,  very  far  distant  be  the  day,  when  our  associated  and 
fraternal  stripes  shall  be  severed  asunder,  and  when  that  happy 
constellation  under  which  we  have  risen  to  so  much  renown, 
shall  be  broken  up,  and  be  seen  sinking,  star  after  star,  into 
obscurity  and  night ! 

Among  other  things,  the  hon.  member  spoke  of  the  public 
debt.  To  that  he  holds  the  public  lands  pledged,  and  has  ex- 
pressed his  usual  earnestness  for  its  total  discharge.  Sir,  I 
have  always  voted  for  every  measure  for  reducing  the  debt, 
since  I  have  been  in  Congress.  I  wish  it  paid  because  it  is  a 
debt,  and,  so  far,  is  a  charge  Upon  the  industry  of  the  country, 
and  the  finances  of  the  Government.   But,  sir,  I  hav«  observ- 


16 


ed,  that,  whenever  the  subject  of  the  public  debt  is  introduced 
into  the  Senate,  a  morbid  sort  of  fervor  is  manifested  in  regard 
to  it,  which  I  have  been  sometimes  at  a  loss  to  understand. 
The  debt  is  not  now  large,  and  is  in  a  course  of  most  rapid  re- 
duction. A  very  few  years  will  see  it  extinguished.  INow,  I 
am  not  entirely  able  to  persuade  myself  that  it  is  not  certain 
supposed  incidental  tendencies  and  effects  of  this  debt,  rather 
than  its  pressure  and  charge  as  a  debt,  that  cause  so  much  anx- 
iety to  get  rid  of  it.  Possibly  it  may  be  regarded  as  in  some 
degree  a  tie,  holding  the  different  parts  of  the  country  together, 
by  considerations  of  mutual  interest.  If  this  be  one  of  its  ef- 
fects, the  effect  itself  is,  in  my  opinion,  not  to  be  lamented.  Let 
me  not  be  misunderstood.  I  would  not  continue  the  debt  for 
the  sake  of  any  collateral  or  consequential  advantage,  such  as 
I  have  mentioned.  1  only  mean  to  say,  that  that  consequence 
itself  is  not  one  that  I  regret.  If  there  are  others  who  would, 
or  who  do  regret  it,  I  differ  from  them. 

As  I  have  already  remarked,  sir,  it  was  one  among  the  rea- 
sons assigned  by  the  lion,  member  for  his  wish  to  be  rid  of 
the  public  lands  altogether,  that  the  public  disposition  of  them, 
and  the  revenues  derived  from  them,  tend  to  corrupt  the  Peo- 
ple. This,  sir,  I  confess,  passes  my  comprehension.  These 
lands  are  sold  at  public  auction,  or  taken  up  at  fixed  prices,  to 
form  farms  and  freeholds.  Whom  does  this  corrupt  ?  Accord- 
ing to  the  system  of  sales,  a  fixed  proportion  is  every  where 
reserved  as  a  fund  for  education.  Does  education  corrupt  ? 
Is  the  schoolmaster  a  corrupter  of  youth  ?  The  spelling  book, 
does  it  break  down  the  morals  of  the  rising  generation  ?  And 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  are  they  fountains  of  corruption  ?  Or  if, 
in  the  exercise  of  a  provident  liberality,  in  regard  to  its  own 
property  as  a  great  landed  proprietor,  and  to  high  purposes 
of  utility  towards  others,  the  Government  gives  portions  of 
these  lands  to  the  making  of  a  canal,  or  the  opening  of  a  road, 
in  the  count ry,  where  the  lands  themselves  arc  situated,  what 
alarming  and  overwhelming  corruption  follows  from  all  this  ? 


17 


Can  there  bo  nothing  pure  in  Government,  except  the  exercise 
of  mere  control  ?  Can  nothing  be  done  without  corruption,  but 
the  imposition  of  penalty  and  restraint  ?  Whatever  is  positively 
beneficent,  whatever  is  actively  good,  whatever  spreads  abroad 
benefits  and  blessings  which  all  can  see,  and  all  can  feel, 
whatever  opens  intercourse,  augments  population,  enhances  the 
value  of  property  and  diffuses  knowledge — must  all  this  be 
rejected  and  reprobated  as  a  dangerous  and  obnoxious  policy, 
hurrying  us  to  the  double  ruin  of  a  Government,  turned  into 
despotism  by  the  mere  exercise  of  acts  of  beneficence,  and  of 
a  people,  corrupted,  beyond  hope  of  rescue,  by  the  improve- 
ment of  their  condition  ! 

The  gentleman  proceeded,  sir,  to  draw  a  frightful  picture  of 
the  future.  He  spoke  of  the  centuries  that  must  elapse,  before 
all  the  lands  could  be  sold,  and  the  great  hardships  that  the 
States  must  suffer  while  the  United  States  reserved  to  itself, 
within  their  limits,  such  large  portions  of  soil,  not  liable  to  tax- 
ation. Sir,  this  is  all,  or  mostly,  imagination.  If  these  lands 
were  leasehold  property,  if  they  were  held  by  the  United  States 
on  rent,  there  would  be  much  in  the  idea.  But  they  arc  wild 
lands,  held  only  till  they  can  be  sold  ;  reserved  no  longer  than 
till  somebody  will  take  them  up,  at  low  prices.  As  to  their 
not  being  taxed,  I  would  ask  whether  the  States  themselves,  if 
they  owned  them,  would  tax  them  before  sale  ?  Sir,  if  in  any 
case,  any  State  can  shew  that  the  policy  of  the  United  States 
retards  her  settlement,  or  prevents  her  from  cultivating  the 
lands  within  her  limits,  she  shall  have  my  vote  to  alter  that 
policy.  But  I  look  upon  the  public  lands  as  a  public  fund, 
and  that  we  arc  no  more  authorized  to  give  them  away  gratui- 
tously than  to  give  away  gratuitously  the  money  in  the  Trea- 
sury. I  am  quite  aware,  that  the  sums  drawn  annually  from 
the  Western  States  make  a  heavy  drain  upon  them,  but  that  is 
unavoidable.  For  that  very  reason,  among  others,  I  have  al- 
*  ays  been  inclined  to  pursue  towards  them  a  kind  and  most 
liberal  policy,  but  I  am  not  at  liberty  to  forget,  at  the  same 


18 


time,  what  is  due  to  other  States,  and  to  the  solemn  engage- 
ments under  which  the  Government  rests. 

I  come  now,  Mr.  President,  to  that  part  of  the  gentleman's 
speech,  whicli  has  been  the  main  occasion  of  my  addressing 
the  Senate.  The  East  !  the  obnoxious,  the  rebuked,  the  al- 
ways reproached  East  !  We  have  come  in,  sir,  on  this  debate 
for  even  more  than  a  common  share  of  accusation  and  attack. 
If  the  honorable  member  from  South  Carolina  w  as  not  our  ori- 
ginal accuser,  he  has,  yet,  recited  the  indictment  against  us, 
w  ith  the  air  and  tone  of  a  public  prosecutor.  He  has  summon- 
ed us  to  plead,  on  our  arraignment;  and  he  tells  us  we  are 
charged  with  the  crime  of  a  narrow  and  selfish  policy  ;  of  en- 
deavoring to  restrain  emigration  to  the  West,  and,  having  that 
object  in  view,  of  maintaining  a  steady  opposition  to  western 
measures  and  western  interests.  And  the  cause  of  all  this  nar- 
row and  selfish  policy,  the  gentleman  finds  in  the  tariff,  I  think 
lie  called  it  the  accursed  policy  of  the  tariff.  This  policy,  the 
gentleman  tells  hs,  requires  multitudes  of  dependent  laborers, 
a  population  of  paupers,  and  that  it  is  to  secure  these  at  home, 
that  the  East  opposes  whatever  may  induce  to  western  emigra- 
tion. Sir,  I  rise  to  defend  the  East.  I  rise  to  repel,  both  the 
charge  itself,  and  the  cause  assigned  for  it.  I  deny  that  the 
East  has,  at  any  time,  shewn  an  illiberal  policy  towards  the 
West.  I  pronounce  the  whole  accusation  to  be  without  the 
least  foundation  in  any  facts,  existing  either  now,  or  at  any 
previous  time.  I  deny  it  in  the  general,  and  I  deny  each  and 
all  its  particulars.  I  deny  the  sum  total,  and  I  deny  the  de- 
tail. I  deny  that  the  East  has  ever  manifested  hostility  to  the 
West,  and  I  deny  that  she  has  adopted  any  policy  that  would 
naturally  have  Jed  her  in  such  a  course.  But  the  tariff!  the 
tariff  ! !  Sir,  I  beg  to  say,  in  regard  to  the  East,  that  the  ori- 
ginal policy  of  the  tariff  is  not  hers,  whether  it  be  wise  or  un- 
wise. New  England  is  not  its  author.  If  gentlemen  will  recur 
to  the  tariff  of  1816,  they  w  ill  find  that  that  was  not  carried 
by  New  England  votes.   It  was,  truly,  more  a  Southern,  than 


19 


an  Eastern  measure.  And  w hat  votes  carried  the  tariff  of  1 824  ? 
Certainly,  not  those  of  New  England.  It  is  known  to  have 
been  made  matter  of  reproach,  especially  against  Massachu- 
setts, that  she  would  not  aid  the  tariff  of  1824,  and  a  sel- 
fish motive  was  imputed  to  her  for  that  also.  In  point  of 
fact,  it  is  true  she  did,  indeed,  oppose  the  tariff  of  1824. 
There  were  more  votes  in  favor  of  that  law  in  the  House  of 
Keprcsentati\ es,  not  only  in  each  of  a  majority  of  the  Western 
States,  hut  even  in  Virginia  herself  also,  than  in  Massachu- 
setts. It  was  literally  forced  upon  New  England;  and  this 
shows  how  groundless,  how  void  of  all  probability  any  charge 
must  be,  which  imputes  to  her  hostility  to  the  growth  of  the 
Western  States,  as  naturally  flowing  from  a  cherished  policy 
of  her  own.  But  leaving  all  conjectures  about  causes  and  mo- 
tives, I  go  at  once  to  the  fact,  and  I  meet  it  with  one  broad, 
comprehensive,  and  emphatic  negative.  I  deny,  that  in  any 
part  of  her  history,  at  any  period  of  the  Government,  or  in  re- 
lation to  any  leading  subject,  New  England  has  manifested  such 
hostility  as  is  charged  upon  her.  On  the  contrary,  I  maintain 
that,  from  the  day  of  the  cession  of  the  Territories,  by  the 
States,  to  Congress,  no  portion  of  the  country  has  acted  either 
with  more  liberality  or  more  intelligence,  on  the  subject  of  the 
western  lands  in  the  new  States,  than  New  England.  This 
statement,  though  strong,  is  no  stronger  than  the  strictest  truth 
will  warrant.  Let  us  look  at  the  historical  facts.  So  soon  as 
the  cessions  were  obtained,  it  became  necessary  to  make  pro- 
vision for  the  government  and  disposition  of  the  Territory — 
the  country  was  to  be  governed.  This,  for  the  present,  it  was 
obvious,  must  be  by  some  territorial  system  of  administration. 
But  the  soil,  also,  was  to  be  granted  and  settled.  Those  im- 
mense regions,  large  enough  almost  for  an  empire,  were  to  be 
appropriated  to  private  ownership.  How  was  this  best  to  be 
done  ?  What  system  for  sale  and  disposition  should  be  adopted  > 
Two  modes  for  conducting  the  sales  presented  themselves:  the 
one  a  Southern  and  the  other  a  Northern  mode.  It  would 
be  tedious,  sir,  here  to  run  out  these  different  systems,  into  all 


20 


their  distinctions,  and  to  contrast  their  opposite  results.  That 
w  hich  w  as  adopted  was  the  Northern  system,  and  is  that  which 
we  now  see  in  successful  operation  in  all  the  new  States.  That 
which  was  rejected,  was  the  system  of  warrants,  surveys, 
entry,  and  location  ;  such  as  prevails  south  of  the  Ohio.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  extend  these  remarks  into  invidious  compari- 
sons. This  last  system,  is  that  which,  as  has  been  emphati- 
cally said,  has  shingled  over  the  country  to  which  it  was  ap- 
plied, with  so  many  conflicting  titles  and  claims.  Every  body 
acquainted  with  the  subject,  knows  howr  easily  it  leads  to  spe- 
culation and  litigation — two  great  calamities  in  a  new  country. 
From  the  system  actually  established,  these  evils  are  banish- 
ed. Now,  sir,  in  effecting  this  great  measure,  the  first  impor- 
tant measure  on  the  w  hole  subject,  New  England  acted  with 
vigor  and  effect :  and  the  latest  posterity  of  those  who  settled 
northwest  of  the  Ohio,  will  have  reason  to  remember, 
with  gratitude,  her  patriotism  and  her  wisdom.  The  system 
adopted  was  her  own  system.  She  knew,  for  she  had  tried 
and  proved  its  value.  It  was  the  old-fashioned  way  of  sur- 
veying lands,  before  the  issuing  of  any  title  papers,  and  then 
of  inserting  accurate  and  precise  descriptions  in  the  patents  or 
grants,  and  proceeding  with  regular  reference  to  metes  and 
bounds.  This  gives  to  original  titles,  derived  from  Govern- 
ment, a  certain  and  fixed  character ;  it  cuts  up  litigation  by 
the  roots,  and  the  settler  commences  his  labors  with  the  assu- 
rance that  he  has  a  clear  title.  It  is  easy  to  perceive,  but  not 
easy  to  measure,  the  importance  of  this  in  a  new  country. 
New  England  gave  this  system  to  the  West ;  and  while  it  re- 
mains, there  will  be  spread  over  all  the  West,  one  monument  of 
her  intelligence  in  matters  of  government,  and  her  practical 
good  sense. 

Then  comes,  sir,  the  renowned  ordinance  of  1787,  which 
lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  Constitutions  of  these  new  north- 
western States.  We  are  accustomed,  sir,  to  praise  the  law- 
givers of  antiquity  ;  we  help  to  perpetuate  the  fame  of  Solon 


21 

and  Lycurgus ;  but  I  doubt  wbether  one  single  law  of  any 
lawgiver,  ancient  or  modern,  has  produced  effects  of  more 
distinct,  marked,  and  lasting  character,  than  the  ordinance 
of  '87.  That  instrument  was  drawn  by  Nathan  Dane, 
then,  and  now,  a  citizen  of  Massachusetts.  It  was  adopted, 
as  I  think  I  have  understood,  without  the  slightest  alteration  ; 
and  certainly  it  has  happened  to  few  men,  to  be  the  authors  of 
a  political  measure  of  more  large  and  enduring  consequence. 
It  fixed,  forever,  the  character  of  the  population  in  the  vast 
regions  northwest  of  the  Ohio,  by  excluding  from  them  in- 
voluntary servitude.  It  impressed  on  the  soil  itself,  while  it 
was  yet  a  wilderness,  an  incapacity  to  bear  up  any  other  than 
free  men.  It  laid  the  interdict  against  personal  servitude,  in 
original  compact,  not  only  deeper  than  all  local  law,  but 
r»  deeper,  also,  than  all  local  constitutions.    Under  the  circum- 

stances then  existing,  I  look  upon  this  original  and  season- 
able provision  as  a  vast  good  attained.  We  see  its  conse- 
quences at  this  moment,  and  we  shall  never  cease  to  see 
them,  while  the  Ohio  shall  flow.  It  was  a  great  and  sa- 
lutary measure  of  prevention.  Sir,  I  should  fear  the  rebuke 
of  no  intelligent  gentleman  of  Kentucky,  were  I  to  ask  whe- 
ther, if  such  an  ordinance  could  have  been  applied  to  his  own 
State,  while  it  yet  was  a  wilderness,  and  before  Boone  had 
passed  the  gap  of  the  Allegany,  he  does  not  suppose  it  would 
have  contributed  to  the  ultimate  greatness  of  that  common- 
Wealth  ?  It  is,  at  any  rate,  not  to  be  doubted,  that,  where  it 
did  apply,  it  has  produced  an  effect  not  easily  to  be  described, 
or  measured,  in  the  growth  of  the  States,  and  the  extent  and 
increase  of  their  population.  Now,  sir,  this  great  measure, 
again,  was  carried  by  the  North,  and  by  the  North  alone. 
There  were,  indeed,  individuals  elsewhere  favorable  to  it  : 
but  it  was  supported,  as  a  measure,  entirely  by  the  votes  of  the 
Northern  States.  If  New  England  had  been  governed  by  the 
narrow  and  selfish  views  now  ascribed  to  her,  this  very  mea- 
sure was,  of  all  others,  the  best  calculated  to  thwart  her  pur- 
poses.   It  was,  of  all  things,  the  very  moans  of  rendering 


22 


certain  a  vast  emigration  from  her  own  population  to  the 
West.  She  looked  to  that  consequence  only  to  disregard  it. 
She  deemed  the  regulation  a  most  useful  one  to  the  States  that 
would  spring  up  on  the  territory,  and  advantageous  to  the 
country  at  large.  She  adhered  to  the  principle  of  it  perse- 
veringly.  year  after  year,  until  it  was  finally  accomplished. 

Leaving,  then,  Mr.  President,  these  two  great  and  leading 
measures,  and  coming  down  to  our  own  times,  what  is  there, 
in  the  history  of  recent  measures  of  Government,  that  exposes 
New  England  to  this  accusation  of  hostility  to  Western  in- 
terests ?  I  assert,  boldly,  that  in  all  measures  conducive  to 
the  welfare  of  the  West,  since  my  acquaintance  here,  no  part 
of  the  country  has  manifested  a  more  liberal  policy.  1  beg 
to  say,  sir,  that  I  do  not  state  this  with  a  view  of  claiming  for 
her  any  special  regard  on  that  account.  Not  at  all.  She 
does  not  place  her  support  of  measures  on  the  ground  of  favor 
conferred — far  otherwise.  What  she  has  done,  has  been  con- 
sonant to  her  view  of  the  general  good,  and,  therefore,  she  has 
done  it.  She  has  sought  to  make  no  gain  of  it ;  on  the  con- 
trary, individuals  may  have  felt  undoubtedly  some  natural 
regret,  at  finding  the  relative  importance  of  their  own  States 
diminished  by  the  growth  of  the  West.  Rut  New  England 
has  regarded  that,  as  in  the  natural  course  of  things,  and  has 
never  complained  of  it.  Let  me  see,  sir,  any  one  measure  fa- 
vorable to  the  West,  which  has  been  opposed  by  New  Eng- 
land since  the  Government  bestowed  its  attention  to  these  West- 
ern improvements.  Select  what  you  will,  if  it  be  a  measure 
of  acknowledged  utility,  I  answer  for  it,  it  will  be  found  that 
not  only  were  New  England  votes  for  it,  but  that  New  Eng- 
land votes  carried  it.  Will  you  take  the  Cumberland  road — 
who  has  made  that  ?  Will  you  take  the  Portland  Canal — 
whose  support  carried  that  bill  ?  Sir,  at  what  period  beyond 
the  Greek  kalends,  could  these  measures,  or  measures  like 
these,  have  been  accomplished,  had  they  depended  on  the  votes 
of  Southern  gentlemen  ?    Why,  sir,  we  know  that  we  must 


23 


have  waited  till  the  constitutional  notions  of  these  gentlemen 
had  undergone  an  entire  change.  Generally  speaking,  they 
have  done  nothing,  and  can  do  nothing.  All  that  has  heen 
effected,  has  heen  done  hy  the  votes  of  reproached  New  Eng- 
land. I  undertake  to  say,  sir,  that  if  you  look  to  the  votes  on 
any  one  of  these  measures,  and  strike  out  from  the  list  of  aye« 
the  names  of  New  England  members,  it  will  he  found  that  in 
every  case,  the  South  would  then  have  voted  down  the  West, 
and  the  measure  would  have  failed.  1  do  not  believe  any  one 
instance  can  he  found  where  this  is  not  strictly  true.  I  do  not 
believe  that  one  dollar  has  been  expended  for  these  purposes 
beyond  the  mountain,  which  could  have  been  obtained  without 
cordial  co-operation  and  support  from  New  England. 

Sir,  I  put  the  question  to  the  West  itself.  Let  gentlemen 
who  have  sat  here  ten  years,  come  forth  and  declare,  by  what; 
aids,  and  by  whose  votes,  they  have  succeeded,  in  measures 
deemed  of  essential  importance  to  their  part  of  the  country. 
To  all  men  of  sense  and  candour,  in  or  out  of  Congress,  who 
have  any  knowledge  upon  the  subject,  New  England  may  ap- 
peal, for  refutation  of  the  reproach  now  attempted  to  be  cast 
upon  her,  in  this  respect. 

1  take  liberty  to  repeat,  that  1  make  no  claim,  on  behalf  of 
New  England,  on  account  of  that  which  I  have  now  stated. 
She  does  not  profess  to  have  acted  out  of  favor  s  for  it  would 
not  become  her  so  to  have  acted.  She  solicits  for  no  especial 
thanks;  hut,  in  the  consciousness  of  having  done  her  duty  in 
these  things,  uprightly  and  honestly,  and  with  a  fair  and  libe- 
ral spirit,  be  assured  she  will  repel,  whenever  she  thinks  the 
occasion  calls  for  it,  an  unjust  and  groundless  imputation  of 
partiality  and  selfishness. 

The  gentleman  alluded  to  a  report  of  the  late  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  which,  according  to  his  reading  or  construction 
of  it,  recommended  what  he  calls  the  tariff  policy,  or  a  branch  of 


24 


that  policy;  that  is,  the  restraining  of  emigration  to  the  West,  for 
the  purpose  of  keeping  hands  at  home,  to  carry  on  the  manufac- 
tures. I  think,  sir,  that  the  gentleman  misapprehended  the  mean- 
ing of  the  Secretary,  in  the  interpretation  given  to  his  remarks. 
I  understand  him  only  as  saying,  that  since  the  low  price  of 
lands  at  the  West  acts  as  a  constant  and  standing  bounty  to 
agriculture,  it  is,  on  that  account,  the  more  reasonable  to  pro- 
vide encouragement  for  manufactures.  But,  sir,  even  if  the 
Secretary's  observation  were  to  be  understood  as  the  gentle- 
man understands  it,  it  would  not  be  a  sentiment  borrowed 
from  any  New  England  source.  Whether  it  be  right  or 
wrong,  it  does  not  originate  in  that  quarter. 

In  the  course  of  these  remarks,  Mr.  President,  I  have  spok- 
en of  the  supposed  desire,  on  the  part  of  the  Atlantic  States, 
to  check,  or  at  least  not  to  hasten,  western  emigration,  as  a 
narrow  policy.  Perhaps  I  ought  to  have  qualified  the  expres- 
sion ;  because,  sir,  I  am  now  about  to  quote  the  opinions  of 
one,  to  whom  I  would  impute  nothing  narrow.  I  am  now 
about  to  refer  you  to  the  language  of  a  gentleman  of  much  and 
deserved  distinction,  now  a  member  of  the  other  House,  and 
occupying  a  prominent  situation  there.  The  gentleman,  sir,  is 
from  South  Carolina.  In  1825,  a  debate  arose  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  on  the  subject  of  the  Western  Road.  It 
happened  to  me  to  take  some  part  in  that  debate ;  I  was  answer- 
ed by  the  honorable  gentleman  to  whom  I  have  alluded,  and  I 
replied,  May  I  be  pardoned,  sir,  if  I  read  a  part  of  this  debate  ? 

"The  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  has  urged,"  said  Mr. 
McD.,"as  one  leading  reason  why  the  Government  should 
make  roads  to  the  West,  that  these  roads  have  a  tendency  to 
settle  the  public  lands ;  that  they  increase  the  inducements  to 
settlement,  and  that  this  is  a  national  object.  Sir,  I  differ  en- 
tirely from  his  views  on  the  subject.  I  think  that  the  public 
lands  are  settling  quite  fast  enough  ;  that  our  people  need  want 
no  stimulus  to  urge  them  thither  3  but  want  rather  a  check,  at 


25 


least  on  that  artificial  tendency  to  the  Western  settlement, 
which  we  have  created  by  our  own  laws. 

*  The  gentleman  says,  that  the  great  object  of  Government, 
with  respect  to  those  lands,  is  not  to  make  them  a  source  of 
revenue,  but  to  get  them  settled.  What  would  have  been  thought 
of  this  argument  in  the  old  thirteen  States  ?  it  amounts  to 
this,  that  those  States  are  to  offer  a  bonus  of  their  own  im- 
provements, to  create  a  vortex  to  swallow  up  our  floating  popu- 
lation. Look,  sir,  at  the  present  aspect  of  the  Southern  States, 
in  no  part  of  Europe  will  you  see  the  same  indications  of  de- 
ray.  Deserted  villages — houses  falling  to  ruin — impoverished 
lands  thrown  out  of  cultivation  !  Sir,  I  believe  that  if  the 
public  lands  had  never  been  sold,  the  aggregate  amount  of  the 
national  wealth  would  have  been  greater  at  this  moment.  Our 
population,  if  concentrated  in  the  old  States,  and  not  ground 
down  by  tariffs,  would  have  been  more  prosperous  and  more 
wealthy.  But  every  inducement  has  been  held  out  to  them  to 
settle  in  the  West,  until  our  population  has  become  sparse,  and 
then  the  effects  of  this  sparseness  are  now  to  be  counteracted 
by  another  artificial  system.  Sir,  I  say  if  there  is  any  object 
worthy  the  attention  of  this  Government,  it  is  a  plan  which 
shall  limit  the  sale  of  the  public  lands.  If  those  lands  were 
sold  according  to  their  real  value,  be  it  so.  But  while  the  Go- 
vernment continues,  as  it  now  does,  to  give  them  away,  they 
will  draw  the  population  of  the  older  States,  and  still  farther 
iucrease  the  affect  which  is  already  distressingly  felt,  and  which 
must  go  to  diminish  the  value  of  all  those  States  possess. 
And  this,  sir,  is  held  out  to  us  as  a  motive  for  granting  the 
present  appropriation.  I  would  not,  indeed,  prevent  the  forma- 
tion of  roads  on  these  considerations,  but  I  certainly  would 
not  encourage  it.  Sir,  there  is  an  additional  item  in  the  ac- 
count of  the  benefits  which  this  Government  has  conferred  on 
the  Western  States.  It  is  the  sale  of  the  public  lands  at  the 
minimum  price.  At  this  moment  we  are  selling  to  the  people 
of  the  West,  lands  at  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents,  which 


26 


are  worth  fifteen,  and  which  would  sell  at  that  price  if  the  mar- 
kets were  not  glutted." 

"  Mr.  Webster  observed,  in  reply,  that  the  gentleman  from 
South  Carolina  had  mistaken  him,  if  he  supposed  that  it  was 
his  wish  so  to  hasten  the  sales  of  the  public  lands  as  to  throw 
them  into  the  hands  of  purchasers  who  would  sell  again. 
His  idea  only  went  as  far  as  this :  that  the  price  should  be 
fixed  so  low  as  not  to  prevent  the  settlement  of  the  lands,  yet 
not  so  low  as  to  permit  speculators  to  purchase.  Mr.  W. 
observed  that  he  could  not  at  all  concur  with  the  gentleman 
from  South  Carolina,  in  wishing  to  restrain  the  laboring 
classes  of  population  in  the  Eastern  States  from  going  to  any 
part  of  our  territory,  where  they  could  better  their  condition  ; 
nor  did  he  suppose  such  idea  was  any  where  entertained. 
The  observations  of  the  gentleman  had  opened  to  him  new 
views  of  policy  on  this  subject,  and  he  thonght  he  now  could 
perceive  why  some  of  our  States  continued  to  have  such  bad 
roads  ;  it  must  be  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  people  from 
going  out  of  them.  The  gentleman  from  South  Carolina 
supposes,  that  if  our  population  had  been  confined  to  the  old 
thirteen  States,  the  aggregate  wealth  of  the  country  would 
have  been  greater  than  it  now  is.  But,  sir,  it  is  an  error, 
that  the  increase  of  the  aggregate  of  the  National  wealth  is 
the  object  chiefly  to  be  pursued  by  Government.  The  distri- 
bution of  the  National  wealth  is  an  object  quite  as  important 
as  its  increase.  He  was  not  surprised  that  the  old  States,  not 
increasing  in  population  as  fast  as  was  expected  (for  he  be- 
lieved nothing  like  a  decrease  was  pretended)  should  be  an 
idea  by  no  means  agreeable  to  gentlemen  from  those  States  ; 
we  are  all  reluctant  in  submitting  to  the  loss  of  relative  im- 
portance— but  this  was  nothing  more  than  the  natural  con- 
dition of  a  country  densely  populated  in  one  part,  and  pos- 
sessing in  another  a  vast  tract  of  unsettled  lands.  The  plan 
of  the  gentleman  went  to  reverse  the  order  of  nature,  vainly 
expecting  to  retain  men  within  a  small  and  comparatively 


27 


unproductive  territory,  M  who  have  all  the  world  before  them 
whose  to  choose."  For  his  own  part,  he  was  in  favor  of  let- 
ting population  take  its  own  course  ;  he  should  experience  no 
feeling  of  mortification  if  any  of  his  constituents  liked  better 
to  settle  on  the  Kansas  or  the  Arkansas,  or  the  Lord  knows 
where,  within  our  territory  ;  let  them  go,  and  bo  happier,  if 
they  could.  The  gentleman  says,  our  aggregate  of  wealth 
would  have  been  greater,  if  our  population  had  been  restrain- 
ed within  the  limits  of  the  old  States  ;  but  does  he  not  consider 
population  to  be  wealth  ;  and  has  not  this  been  increased  by  the 
settlement  of  a  new  and  fertile  country  ?  Such  a  country  presents 
the  most  alluring  of  all  prospects  to  a  young  and  laboring 
man  ;  it  give9  him  a  freehold — it  offers  him  weight  and  re- 
spectability in  society  ;  and,  above  all,  it  presents  to  him  a 
prospect  of  a  permanent  provision  for  his  children.  Sir, 
these  are  inducements  which  never  were  resisted,  and  never 
will  be  ;  and  were  the  whole  extent  of  country  filled  with  po- 
pulation up  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  these  inducements  would 
carry  that  population  forward  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific 
ocean.  Sir,  it  is  in  vain  to  talk  ;  individuals  will  seek  their 
own  good,  and  not  any  artificial  aggregate  of  National  wealth. 
A  young,  enterprising,  and  hardy  agriculturist,  can  conceive  of 
nothing  better  to  him  than  plenty  of  good,  cheap  Iand.,, 

Sir,  with  the  reading  of  these  extracts  I  leave  the  subject. 
The  Senate  will  bear  me  witness  that  I  am  not  accustomed  to 
allude  to  local  opinions,  nor  to  compare,  nor  contrast,  different 
portions  of  the  country.  I  have  often  suffered  things  to  pass 
which  I  might  properly  enough  have  considered  as  deserving 
a  remark,  without  any  observation.  But  I  have  felt  it  my 
duty,  on  this  occasion,  to  vindicate  the  State  I  represent  from 
charges  and  imputations  on  her  public  character  and  conduct, 
which  I  know  to  be  undeserved  and  unfounded.  If  advanced 
elsewhere,  they  might  be  passed,  perhaps,  without  notice.  But 
whatever  is  said  here,  is  supposed  to  be  entitled  to  public  re- 
gard, and  to  deserve  public  attention — it  derives  importance 


28 


and  dignity  from  the  place  where  it  is  uttered.  As  a  true  Re- 
presentative of  the  State  which  has  sent  me  here,  it  is  my  duty, 
and  a  duty  which  I  shall  fulfil,  to  place  her  history  and  her 
conduct,  her  honor  and  her  character,  in  their  just  and  proper 
light,  so  often  as  I  think  an  attack  is  made  upon  her,  so  re- 
spectable  as  to  deserve  to  be  repelled. 

Mr.  W.  concluded  by  moving  the  indefinite  postponement  of 
the  resolution. 


i£x  Htbrta 


SEYMOUR  DURST 


